To enhance driver and passenger experience, some vehicles include a sound augmentation system, such as an active noise cancellation system, sound masking system, or a sound enhancement system. An active noise cancellation system attempts to reduce or eliminate unwanted sound by the addition of another sound source specifically designed to cancel or substantially reduce the unwanted sound. A sound masking system adds sound to cover up an unwanted sound by making it more difficult to distinguish the unwanted sounds from the additional sound. A sound enhancement system can add sounds to enhance perceived performance characteristics, such as making an automobile engine sound more powerful or more refined from a vehicle occupant perspective.
A sound augmentation system in a vehicle may include one or more microphones to detect sounds, vehicle information inputs to determine a current state of the vehicle, an amplifier, and one or more speakers to output augmented sounds. As components age they may exhibit degraded performance. Degradation or changes in the sound characteristics of the sound augmentation system or of components that emit sounds to be augmented can result in noticeable changes in the audio environment within the vehicle. For instance, if the sound augmentation system becomes inoperative, the vehicle occupants may notice that the vehicle sounds different but not understand why.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for health monitoring of sound augmentation system performance.